Pro-skater Nyjah Huston on Social Responsibility and His Tribeca Film Festival Debut

The street skating phenom tells us all about winning gold medals and giving back.

You may not have heard of Nyjah Huston yet if you're not plugged into the pro-skating scene, but that's all about to change. The 18-year-old just brought home his second X-Games gold medal from Brazil, and ESPN just named him as the athlete who will change the course of the sport over the next decade. He's sponsored by eight different brands, is about to launch a signature sneaker with DC Shoes, and has just made his feature film debut at this year's Tribeca Film Festival.

As if his impressive career weren't enough, the street league champion has co-founded a charity with his mother: Let It Flow brings water and sanitation facilities to communities that lack access to clean water, a cause that Nyjah can relate to due to the hardships he faced during his own upbringing. While living in rural Puerto Rico, he and his family often went days or weeks with limited access to usable, running water. On May 4th, he'll host Flowfest at the exclusive indoor skate facility, The Berrics, to benefit the cause. If you're in LA and want to hang with the pros, you can pick up tickets at letitflow.org.

We caught up with the busy skate star to get the scoop on what's next for his white-hot career.

How did you get your start? What was it like being sponsored at such a young age?
When I was around 4 or 5 years old, my dad got my two older brothers and me into skateboarding. I stepped on one and I absolutely loved it, and that's all I ever wanted to do as a kid. I was home-schooled my entire life because I traveled so much, and my family owned their own skatepark, so naturally I got really good. By the time I was 11, I was skating my first X-Games and had a few good sponsors.

Your skating peers were much older than you. What was it like growing up with them?
It was really cool; and intimidating at the same time. I was skating contests with everyone else being around the age of 25 or older, but those were the skaters that I looked up to at the time. It was awesome because I saw them in magazines every single day, so competing with them was a dream come true.

What's the worst injury you've gotten from skating?
Honestly, I've never broken a bone before, and I would say that mainly comes from being raised as a vegan! I grew up eating very healthy food, and I never drank any soda.

What's your skating career like right now?
Better than ever. The last two years have been really strong, the contest seasons have been going awesome, and this year I feel really good. Skateboarding is starting to evolve into a bigger sport, which makes me really happy. The more contests there are, the more I can get out there to do what I love.

You just won the X-Games! That's huge for a skater at any age. What was that like for you?
This was the first year the X-Games has gone international, so I actually just got back from Brazil. I won gold! The crowd out there was insaneso different from being at a contest here in the States, because they're not used to seeing skaters out there doing what we do, so they were super hyped-up. Actually winning an X-Games gold medal felt really special to me, because it took about six years to accomplish that. It felt like I finally deserved it.

What's your favorite trick?
The 360 flip!

You are one of eight pro skaters in the documentary film The Motivation. Tell us about your feature film debut.
It's a really cool film that profiles what we do on and off our skateboards, how we prepare for contests, and how we get through injuries. Basically, it's about what motivates us, because skateboarding isn't a team sportyou choose how much you're going to go out there and practice. But the great thing about the sport is that when you're practicing, you're having funI never have to feel like I'm "training" or "working", it's just all a good time. I'm very honored to be in a movie like this. When I was being filmed for it, I had no idea that it was going to turn out to be such a big deal, and premiere in a place like the Tribeca Film Festival.

Speaking of motivation, what's yours?
I do come from a very humble background. Right now, showing that you're not too young to make a difference like that is a huge motivating factor for me, which is why my mom and I founded Let It Flow, and the goal is to build wells and sanitation facilities for people around the world who aren't fortunate enough to have access to clean water. You can Google how many people in the world don't have clean water, and the numbers are insaneI think the statistic is one in three deaths are caused from unsanitary water. We're still in our first year, but we've already done a few projects in Ethiopia, which is awesome. One well can service an entire community of 1,000 people, and costs about $4,000 to build. So, if we hold an event and are able to raise $12,000, we're impacting 3,000 people.

What advice would you give to teens who are trying to make their mark as an athlete?
Never think that you're not good enough, or that you're too young for something. As long as you're working hard for what you love doing, you'll have a good chance of getting somewhere with it. A lot of kids out there come from humble backgrounds like mine, and I'd say that they all have a chance of doing something as I did. And, if you're skateboarding, take it slow! You'll definitely get hurt trying stuff you're not ready for.